So where were we? Ah, yes;

* The Doctor, Martha and Jack have arrived back on Earth, minus the TARDIS. They discover that The Master has become Prime Minister, by hypnotising the electorate to vote for him.
* The Master is also controlling the population through his Archangel phone network. Makes me want to distrust the corporate world, at least until my next Frappacino craving!
* The Master has aged The Doctor by 100 years, but The Doctor has given Martha some instructions that are revealed in the episode's climax.

Anyway, one year later. Martha is travelling the world, doing what The Doctor asked of her. She has become a folk hero, and myths travel faster than she does.

Officially, as she tells Prof. Docherty, she is looking for a weapon to kill The Master and that's the story that the resistance are telling.

She discovers that the troclafane are really the humans from 100 trillion years in the future (this is were I kick myself for not setting my VCR!), and The Master apparently saved them as their society was being destroyed.

As we discover, the real reason she travelled was to spread the word, almost missionary-like, about The Doctor and to encourage them to think about The Doctor at exactly the same moment. This means that The Doctor is able to change back into his old self.

The Master is shot and refuses to regenerate, despite The Doctor begging him to. We get the impression that The Doctor is lonely, his tears when The Master died and disappointment when Martha told him that she couldn't travel with him any more.

Parts of this episode were also reminiscent of some of the older Doctors. The scene where Martha is peering over the rocks looking at the rockets, is similar to "Dalek Invasion of Earth". Plus the resistance is reminiscent of any Doctor Who episode where a fascistic tyrant has been in control. Interesting that there appears to be a common themes running through the stories.

Anyway, that was a brilliant way to end the series; tears, telepathy and action!

10/10

Hi there,

Just found a really good Doctor Who site/blog, which you all may be interested in.

Here.

with a 'Sound of Drums' review here

Enjoy.

I go away for a week, forget to set my video and miss the return of The Master. And I wasn't even in a cave on Mars.

Anyway, the plot. Arrrrgh! I'm going to be watching from behind a cushion next week!

The Master/Mr Saxon has stolen the TARDIS, and The Doctor, Martha and the lovely Captain Jack have followed him with a teleport (it's not as smooth as Star Trek!). Arriving in 2007(?), in London, they discover that The Master has become Prime Minister, through a campaign of mind control. In what might vaguely resemble a fascistic police state, both of Martha's parents are arrested, and The Master is watching The Doctor's every move. The Doctor, Martha and Jack are fugitives.

So what do they do? They disguise themselves, so no one will recognise them. They manage to follow The Master to an aircraft carrier floating in the sky, where he destroys the US President (trying to take control as usual!) and, in a reverse of The Lazarus Experiment, ages The Doctor by 100 years and sends his army to destroy Earth. All this appears to leave The Doctor, Martha, Jack and Martha's family helpless.

My thoughts;
* Did anyone else see the way The Master was trying to be a clown version of Tony Blair? Must be the smugness.
* Why did they have to cheese up the ending by playing a song? I'm not sure if I'll be able to hear "Voodoo Child" again, without thinking of The Master. (I suppose with a line like "the sound of drums", it would be an obvious choice)

Rating: 10/10 - can't wait for the finale. Now, where is my pillow?!

Brilliant!

You can't keep a good villian down. The Master is back!

The episode with minimal appearances from The Doctor; but unlike "Love and Monsters", was not light and fluffy at all. I can still feel the shivers running down my spine.

First, the plot. We meet Sally Sparrow climbing over the fence of an abandoned house, which would look great on the Derelict London website. She's busy snapping away at fallen chandeliers, etc, when she discovers a note on the wall, from The Doctor. She comes back the next day, with her best friend and find out exactly what the Weeping Angels can do. Cathy is transported to Hull, in 1920. At the same time that a young man delivers a letter to Sally with instructions from his grandmother; who, bizarrely, is Cathy.

What follows is a trip to Cathy's brother's DVD shop, where Sally discovers "Easter Eggs" are hidden on 17 DVDs. She goes to the police, and discovers they have been investigating the house. The Weeping Angels have the TARDIS, and have sent The Doctor back to 1969. It seems that only Sally, and Cathy's brother Larry, can return the TARDIS to The Doctor.

This episode gives an insight into the complicated existence of The Doctor; how to us life and time seems to run in a straight line, but to a Timelord, is all over the place jumping between periods in history. And it's not necessarily in the order we experience it; look at The Shakespeare Code, earlier this series as an example.

Also how Cathy and Billy managed to jump to a time period and settle in, shows perhaps how Timelord concept of time is completely different. Would that happen in real life, a person goes back in time and settles in to a new life? Maybe it will, but physics and me don't exactly get along so I'll leave that discussion to someone else.

Rating: 8/10 (Can't give everything a 10, can I?)

Christopher Eccleston is staying with sci fi/fantasy to play the lead role in the up and coming 'The Dark Is Rising', a film based on the novels of Susan Cooper. He joins Ian McShane of Loveyoy and Deadwood fame and Gregory Smith.

Well, I say the lead, he appears to be playing the bad guy, 'The Rider'. Eccleston admits himself that his character has similarities with the Nazgul from LOTR  - he says in an interview: 'When you read the book, I can't believe that she wasn't in some ways influenced by Tolkien because by that time, the mid '70s, Tolkien's books had made such a huge impact, but it actually predates Potter and all that stuff. I'm sure that if we dove in some mythology that a man on horseback spreading terror was probably lifted by Tolkien himself, probably from Greek stuff, the archetype being their problem. Yeah, I think there are similarities and I think some of the terror resides in the fact that, for children at least, it's not about machinery. It's this man as an animal. The thing we've talked about with the Rider is that without the horse, he's slightly powerless, and that him and horse are kind of indivisible.'

The film is due for an October 07 release.

I'm reviewing this whilst referring back to the review of "Human Nature", last week. So an update, for everyone's benefit (especially mine);

* Doctor and Martha running from The Family of Blood, hide in a school in England, in 1913.
* Doctor assumes the name John Smith, falls in love and forgets that he is a Timelord.
* The Family of Blood track The Doctor down, and start a killing spree.
* Oh, and the amazingly intelligent Tim Latimer has the watch.

The first part left us, and The Doctor, faced with the possibility of either Martha or Joan being evapourated by The Family. However, Martha manages to overpower her captor, and The Doctor, Martha and others, run back to the school which is subsequently besieged. Latimer is listening to the watch, and after The Family have killed a few more, is instructed to hand the watch back. Which inevitably saves the day.

The Doctor shows his compassionate, non violent character. When the school (a cadet school), is defending itself against The Family and their scarecrow army, he (as John Smith) is the only one not firing his weapon. The boys are busy blowing scarecrows apart.

Also, when he has changed back into a Timelord, instead of killing The Family, he grants them their wish to live forever. Which makes me want to check all of my mirrors!

Latimer's super human intelligence (and psychic abilities) foresee the dreadful events of the war, and The Doctor gives him the watch which saves his life and the life of his school friend.

Nurse Joan, who fell in love with John Smith, believes that The Doctor is a different person to Smith. She refuses his invitation to travel, as there had been so many deaths at the school. It is reminiscent of Doctor-geek Clive's words in the episode Rose; "Everywhere he goes, he leaves a trail of destruction." That sums up the way humans view The Doctor, even though the death and destruction is caused by his enemies.

Oh, maybe that was over analysing the episode; it was, after all, an amazing story with plenty of suspense. Maybe that's how I should view it.

Rating (for both episodes); 10/10. If it was possible to give it more, I would!